Car-coupling



(No Model.) 2 SheetsSheet 1.

P. O. GREENAWALT.

UAR COUPLING.

PATENT QFFICE.

. PETER CARR GREENAVVALT, OF WAMPUM, PENNSYLVANIA.

CAR-COUPLING. i

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Application filed January 29, 1886.

Patent No. 339,984, dated April 13, 1886.

Serial No. 190,57. No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, PETER CARR GREENA- WALT, a citizen of the United States, residing at \iV-ampum, in the county of Lawrence and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Car-Couplers; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to couplers for either freight or passenger cars; and its object is to provide a safe, effective, and novel coupler .adapted to be operated either from the top or platform or side of a car.

In the accompanying drawings, Figurel is a side elevation, and Fig. 2 an inverted plan View, of my improved coupler applied to freight-cars. Fig. 3 is a plan view of a can body, partly in full lines and in dotted lines, with my improvements, which are shown partly in elevation and section, the same illus mating the construction of the bumper, drawbar, coupling-hooks, and their supports and connections. The lines of section are on different horizontal planes, one of which is indicated in Fig. 1 by at m, and the other in Fig. 4 by 00 :10. Fig. 4 is a broken vertical section of a freight-car platform and body-frame, the draw-bar, and a coupling-hook. Fig. 5 is a plan view of one of the coupling-hooks. Fig. 6 is a side view of parts of two matching coupling-hooks, illustrating their use in coupling two cars of diiferent heights. Fig. 7 is a vertical cross-section of one of the coupling-hooks and an elevation of its guiding-support and other connected parts, and Fig. 8 is aside elevation of the hook-guide and of support.

My invention consists in certain novel features of construction and combinations of parts, as will be hereinafter described, and pointed out in the claims, whereby an improved carcoupler is produced.

In the drawings, A A designate different forms of freight-car bodies having short platforms a a.

B are triangular hook-guiding supports suspended on the under sides of the platforms, being fastened in position by means of screwthreaded standards b, rising vertically from the triangular supports, passing through the platforms,and receiving nuts on their ends, as shown.

0 C are coupling-hooks connected to the ends of the draft-bars D D of the cars by pivot-pins (I, passed through the eyes 6 of the bifurcated ends of the shanks of the hooks C O and through oblong slotsf in the rear portion of the triangular supports B, as shown. The triangular supports B are provided with short standards I), which, with the long-bolting-standards b, form bearings for chain-pulleys f, as shown. in duplicate, and may be arranged on opposite sides of the support, as shown, so that either the right hand or left hand side of the sup port may be used, accordingly as the supports are required to be placed on different cars.

E is intended to designate strong pins passed, respectively, through the shanks of the coupling-hooks. To these pins tension-springsg are. connected,the same being inserted in trans verse passages 9 formed in the shanks of the hooks, and these springs are connected to check-chains h, which are respectively fastened at h to the upright standards of the supports B. By means ofthe springs g the hooks are allowed to be moved laterally for the purpose of uncoupling the cars, and by them they are caused to resume their normal or central positions ready for the automatic recoupling operation.

F and- G represent, respectively, chain-rods and tension-springs, both connected to the pins E, and respectively to chains is m, as shown. The chain rods pass through the springs G, and attach to the uncoupling-chains 70, while the springs attach to the. chains m, which are attached at i to standards of the coupling-hook supports B. The springs G permit lateral movement of the coupling-hooks in the same manner as the springsg, and they serve to aid the springs g in centralizing the hooks for their automatic recoupling operation. The chains is are passed underpulleys f on one side of the supports, and may be' carried horizontally to the sides of the cars, and there attached to grooved hand-operated sector-levers H, or up through the platforms to fOotoperate-d sector-levers I on the same, or up to the top of cars, and thereattached to The pulleys are provided' foot-operated sector-levers J, as-shown in the drawings. V

The respective coupling hooks G G are formed with matching interlocking jaws having respectively a slightly oblique arrangement with respect to the center line of draft, the obliquity or lateral divergence of the hook at one end of the car being on the right side of said center, and of the hook at the other end being on the left side of the same. The jaws extend down below the shanks of the hooks, as indicated at O in Figs. 1 and 6, so that if the platform of one car is higher than the platform of another car the coupling of such cars may be accomplished the same as if the platforms of both cars were on the same horizontal plane.

By shaping the jaws with surfaces as shown at n n n n n, one coupling-hook will move nicely upon the other, and work like knucklejoints during the turning ofcars about curves, as well as while the operation of uncoupling and coupling the cars is taking place. The

construction of the hooks as shown also brings the line of draft nearly (if not quite so) central with the draft-bars D, and by connecting the hooks to the draft-bars D, and slotting the supports of the coupling-hooks, as at f, the pull upon all the hooks throughout the train is made uniform and borne unitedly by the respective draft bars and hooks. The backward movements of the hooks are limited by stops r r, as shown. 7

Above the coupling-hooks O O bumpers K are applied, as shown. The bumpers are fitted in metal guide-boxes attached to platforms a, and are slotted at l and held in place by pins Z. At the rear ends of the bumpers spring bumper-plates p are pivoted at p to the framing of the car-body, and against these the rear ends of bumper-bars are made to bear, as shown. The springs g which I employ are formed by coiling wire around pivotsp ofthe bumper-plates. The ends of the wire form pressure-arms, one arin l earing against the bumper-plate and the other against the frame, as shown. This construction of spring and bearing-plate affords a very efl'ectire bumping device for the bu mper,and lessens the liability of breakage of parts from very sudden and violentjars or concussions.

L are intended to designate connecting stay and holding down rods, applied between the spring-plates p and the: heads of the pivotpins d of they draft-bars D and coupling-hooks O C. These rods aid in keeping the bars and hooks horizontal and down upon the supports B,and staying the plates p and coupling-hooks against extraordinary forces.

M is an ordinary link-coupling pin, to be used in holes m in the coupling-hooks in case one of the hooks becomes broken, or when 'a car without. the improved hook requires to be coupled to a car provided with said hook.

What I claim is' 1. The combination of the pivoted couplinghooks O 0, having the construction as at n n n n n, guiding-supports B, slotted at f, draftbars D, pivots d, spring 9, chainh, pinE, spring G, chain-rod F, chain m, and uncoup- 7c' ling-chain is, substantially as and for the purpose described.

2. The combination ofthebumprs K,pivoted bumper-plate p, spring q,coil'ed on pivot pin p and the connecting stay-rod L, divergent or oblique coupling hooks C O, shapedas at n n n n n, guiding-support B, slotted at f, draft-rods D, pins d, and the devices, substantially as described, for centralizing, restraining, and uncoupling the hooks, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

3. The combination, with the triangular guiding-supports B, having screw-fastening and pulley-bearing standards, of the couplinghooks G O, draft-rod D, and pins d, substantially as and for the purpose described.

4. The coupling-hooks provided with pins E, in combination with the guiding-supportsB, pulleys, chains, rods, and springs, substantially as described. v

5. The coupling-hooks G 0, having their jaws oblique or divergent from the central line of draft, and shaped as at n n n n n,and extended down, as at 0, below their shanks, substantially as and for the purpose described.

6. The coupling-hooks provided with the passages g and pins E, in combination with chain-rod and springs arranged in the passages, substantially as described.

' In testimony whereof I affix my signature in I00 presence of two witnesses.

PETER CARR GREIENAWALT.

-Witnesses: v

J. A. GRUBB, W. J. MoAULIs. 

